Cape League baseball's lofty Endeavour

If baseballs could talk, there's one in the universe with a story that's hard to beat.

CAPE COD TIMES

If baseballs could talk, there's one in the universe with a story that's hard to beat.

An official Cape Cod Baseball League ball is currently aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, docked with the International Space Station in orbit some 220 miles above the Earth.

Cape League officials had been anxiously awaiting Endeavour's launch for several weeks because their baseball and a small league patch were to be carried into space on the orbiter's 25th and final mission as a result of their request and U.S. Sen. John Kerry's efforts.

Liftoff was originally scheduled for April 19, but because of various postponements, the Endeavour didn't actually launch until May 16, beginning its final mission and carrying for the first time a baseball bearing the Cape Cod League logo and the signature of Commissioner Paul Galop.

“What a thrill to see that launch, especially knowing what I knew,” said Galop, who along with league president Judy Walden Scarafile and a handful of other league officials had kept “Operation Spaceball” under wraps for several weeks.

“We didn't want to say anything until we knew for sure that our ball was in space,” Galop said, adding that although NASA had formally approved the request, there was always the possibility of the ball's passport to space being revoked.

Why a Cape League ball in orbit?

Joe Sherman, the league's special projects coordinator, said the idea was conceived shortly after the league became aware that 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, who was among six people killed in a shooting rampage outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz., in early January, had strong ties to the Cape League.

Christina's father, John Green, is the Los Angeles Dodgers' East Coast scouting supervisor and the family enjoyed summer days in Brewster while he evaluated the league's pro prospects.

Christina accompanied her father to numerous Cape League games and her brother, Dallas, now 11, attended the Brewster Whitecaps' youth baseball camp.

“We wanted to do something to honor the memory of little Christina, who dreamed of becoming the first woman to play Major League Baseball and who loved her family's visits to Cape Cod,” Sherman said.

“We knew that Endeavour's commander would be Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the U.S. congresswoman who was seriously wounded in the same shooting rampage ... so we approached NASA to see whether we could send one of our baseballs on Capt. Kelly's last space shuttle mission.”

When the request was made, the normal deadline for arranging to carry nonessential items on a space shuttle flight had passed. Enter Kerry's staff, which contacted NASA on the Cape League's behalf.

“The Cape League ball represents two things that were important to Christina-Taylor Green – baseball and Cape Cod,” Scarafile said. “Once it is returned to us, it will be displayed for all to see at our Hall of Fame & Museum in Hyannis and we will also take it to our All-Star Game at Fenway Park, which has been dedicated to Christina's memory.”

Galop said Kerry, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and U.S. Congressman William Keating have all been invited to attend the July 29 game in Boston.

Endeavour's 16-day mission is scheduled to end early Wednesday.

“We hope that those who see this piece of Cape League and NASA history will remember the wonderful little girl who inspired its journey to the heavens,” Galop said.

This is Endeavour's 25th flight into space and the 36th space shuttle flight to the International Space Station. Making up the six-man crew are Kelly, the mission commander, pilot Gregory H. Johnson, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel, Michael Fincke and the European Space Agency's Roberto Vittori, all mission specialists.

Baseballs have gone into orbit before. In 2008, NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman tossed the ceremonial first pitch from the International Space Station prior to a Yankees home game against the Boston Red Sox.

The first pitch for the 2002 World Series actually took place aboard the ISS when Peggy Whitson threw the ball to the Expedition 5 commander.

In October 1995, baseballs from the American and National leagues were seen floating near the windows of the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Columbia, with Earth in the background.

But it is believed the Cape League ball is the first from a collegiate summer league to enter the Earth's orbit.

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